Okay, it's really three scores. But "one score", if you've been studying your medieval sheep-herding techniques, is 20. And seven years ago is '13. Which is short for 2013. You may know where we're going with this. Maybe by the end we'll even have 5 fours in a row to make yet another score.
A Bronx Tale
Okay Yankees, we get it. It's been a few weeks since you've gotten a big section in this post and you're grumpy. But why do you have to go and take it out on the Blue Jays? After all, they're New York residents too, at least for the time being. How about being neighborly, eh?
Oh all right, they did let their Canadian-in-name visitors score first in the series opener on Tuesday when Vladimir Guerrero cranked a home run off Deivi Garcia who was making his fourth major-league start. Annnnd that would be about all we'd see of the Toronto offense. As we go to the Yankees half of the 2nd, double, an E9 which is going to make most of this unearned, Brett Gardner single, strikeout which should have ended the inning, two more singles to take the lead. The ever-helpful "mound visit". Followed by two homers in three pitches, courtesy of Luke Voit and Aaron Hicks. Taijuan Walker departs having suddenly given up 7 runs in the span of 20 pitches, plus the pitching oddity that only 1 of the 7 was earned. That line by itself had only been "achieved" by two other Jays starters-- David Wells in 1992, and Mark Buehrle in his final game on October 4, 2015 (also the Jays' final game of the year and they've already clinched the division by 6 games, so who cares).
Although the 7-run inning was the first for the Yankees this year, it wasn't really anything interesting. They had five last year, four at home, including one against the Blue Jays (June 24). So clearly the way to make this interesting is to beat up on Shun Yamaguchi in the 3rd. And the Yankees didn't do it as much as he did it to himself. Three straight walks. The always-helpful "mound visit", after which he at least didn't issue another walk. Plunked Gary Sanchez to force in a run. Plunked Tyler Wade for another. DJ LeMahieu, bases-clearing double to make it 12-1 already. Yamaguchi then allowed the first two batters of the 4th to reach before leaving; he and Walker would be the second pair of Jays pitchers ever to give up 7 runs each in the same game. Roy Halladay, in what now seems like an unusual relief appearance, and Lance Painter both did it in Baltimore on September 28, 2000. And because balks make everything funner, Yamaguchi committed one of those along the way as well, becoming the seventh Jays pitcher to pull off our "Kernels trifecta" (WP, HBP, BK in same game). Brandon Morrow had been the previous one, in 2011. And no pitcher, when facing the Yankees, had hit two of them, thrown a wild pitch, and balked since Boston's Marty Pattin on May 19, 1972.
Okay, so it calmed down a little bit after our score is already 14-3 in the 5th. But Luke Voit and DJ LeMahieu both added a solo homer later on, giving them both 2 extra-base hits and 5 RBI. No Yankees teammates had done that since Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira at Fenway on April 21, 2012. But that wasn't the big story. Those two are atop the Yankees batting order. #1 and #2 both had 5 RBIs. Sound familiar? That's because it happened for the first time in MLB history just last week when Ronald Acuña and Freddie Freeman did it in the 29-9 game. One hundred seasons of RBI as an official stat, nada. Then twice in a week. And LeMahieu actually had another double in the 4th after Yamaguchi departed; the only other Yankees leadoff batters with 3 XBH and 5 RBI in a game are Johnny Damon (2006), Chuck Knoblauch (1998), and Hank Bauer (1952).
Gio Urshela didn't homer, but he did have a pair of doubles and score twice. With LeMahieu, Voit, and Frazier, they're the first quartet of Yankees with 2 XBH and 2 runs scored in the same game since Derek Jeter, Paul O'Neill, Bernie Williams, and Tim Raines on May 6, 1998. Tuesday was also the first time the Yankees had clobbered 6 homers at their current park and it wasn't against Boston. (That happened twice, in 2010 and again in 2018.) In fact, as often happens in these ridiculous-scoring games, the Yankees had four more runs scored (20) than they did hits (16), their first linescore of its kind since posting a 12-on-8 at Seattle on April 27, 1994.
And while it was the 25th exact score of 20-6 in major-league history, which is actually the most popular of the 20-and-up combinations, it was the first one recorded in New York since the Giants rolled up that count against another New York team (the Dodgers) at the Polo Grounds on July 5, 1953.
He may not be DJ Jazzy Jeff or DJ E-Z Rock or even "DJ Big Sweat" whom we once heard on a road trip to Birmingham, Ala. But DJ LeMahieu can bring the hits, and on Wednesday his backup posse kept them spinning. After the 6-homer outburst on Tuesdsay, LeMahieu led off Wednesday's game with yet another homer, his 11th as a Yankee to pass Johnny Damon on the team's leaderboard. (He still has a ways to go to catch Derek Jeter's 29.) He also hit one against the Jays last June; only Jeter, Rickey Henderson, and Brett Gardner have connected twice against Toronto.
It's still 1-0 in the 3rd when we meet Kyle Higashioka. Kyle has finally made it all the way to the big club after being drafted by the Yankees out of high school... in 2008. At the ballpark on Staten Island there's one of those totem poles with all the arrows and distances to the other Yankees affiliates, and Kyle checked off every one of them, usually multiple times, before finally making his MLB debut in 2017. Even since then he's bounced back and forth to Scranton, which is really only an ideal situation if you're looking to score a good deal on copier paper. Anyway, he makes it 2-0 with a home run, and an old-fashioned rap battle ensues between him and the DJ. LeMahieu goes yard again in the 4th to make it 5-0. Clint Frazier pokes in with a couple more RBIs and not only is it already 7-0, but we're looking up whether any team has scored 20 runs in one game and then thrown a no-hitter in the next. (Answer: No.) Jonathan Villar finally gets that little nuisance out of the way in the 6th, but then guess who's up again in the bottom half. Kyle homers again and DJ follows with a double. Luke Voit stops by to remind us that he's still atop the home-run leaderboard by hitting his 19th, but that also means the Yankees have already bombed their way to 6 more homers. Only four other teams in MLB history have done that in back-to-back games, and one of them is watching from the other dugout. Toronto did it just a month ago when they lost that wacky 14-11 extra-inning game against the Marlins and then destroyed the Rays 12-4. (The others, by the way, are the 2012 Nationals, the 2003 Angels, and the 1996 Dodgers.)
But our battle still isn't over. Kyle and DJ still have to bat one more time before we put this mess to bed. And so of course Higashioka pounds his third home run of the game, becoming just the sixth #9 batter in MLB history to do that. Eddie Rosario of the Twins pulled it off in 2017; the rest of the list is Trot Nixon (1999), Dale Sveum (1987), Art Shamsky of the Reds (1966), and Jim Tobin of the Braves (1942), who you may remember from our post about the 29-9 game. Even forgetting the 3 homers, Higashioka was only the second Yankees #9 batter ever to score 3 runs and also drive in 5, after Johnny Murphy against the Tigers on August 28, 1936.
Alas LeMahieu followed by ending the 7th with a groundout, leaving the O.C. victorious in our little battle (Higashioka is from Huntington Beach, and we can't do "east coast/west coast" because LeMahieu is from Visalia). But thanks to that double-- and his line on Tuesday-- LeMahieu still ended up as the first hitter in MLB's "modern era" (1901) to have 3 extra-base hits, 3 runs scored, and 3 RBI in consecutive games while batting leadoff both times. It was the fourth time in Yankees history that one player had a 2-homer game only to be upstaged by a teammate with 3; Gary Sanchez and Clint Frazier did it last April, but the others go back a ways. Charlie Keller had 3 to Joe DiMaggio's 2 on July 28, 1940, and Frankie Crosetti played second fiddle to Tony Lazzeri's 3-HR, 2-GS game on May 24, 1936.
20 runs on Tuesday and 13 on Wednesday gave the Yankees their highest-scoring pair of games since dropping 17 and 21 on the Rays in July 2007. The Jays had only allowed 33 runs in two games once before, to Seattle in April 2000 (17 and 19). And in one last flourish for Kyle and DJ, the best "teammate" note we came up with didn't even require the home runs. They both finished with 3 XBH, 3 runs, and 3 RBI-- the fourth Yankee teammates ever to do that in the same game, and Wednesday was the first time Lou Gehrig wasn't half of the pair. He and Lazzeri did it twice, in 1930 and 1932, both in games against the Athletics that they won (what else?) 20-13. Gehrig's first partner in that stat line was none other than Babe Ruth at Fenway on September 28, 1923.
By Thursday, scoring a whole bunch of runs just wasn't interesting anymore. Yankees must come up with new quirky ways to score runs in order to get continued ink keyboard presses from this column. And the Jays have just the thing in the form of Chase Anderson. "Chase" is his middle name, not an unfortunate nickname that he got on Thursday after cardboard cutouts spent the 4th inning chase-ing down the homers he allowed. (Sidebar: Is there a Zack Hample cutout? And do they move it after each home run to wherever it landed? These are important questions.)
It was a nice quiet 2-2 game and we thought we might get out of this with only the 20 and the 13 taking up a lot of space here. Anderson had other ideas, giving up an RBI double to Gary Sanchez to reclaim the Yankees' lead. Next pitch, Brett Gardner home run. Next pitch, DJ LeMahieu home run. Very. Next. Pitch. Luke Voit home run. Next pitch after that-- mm, no. Aaron Hicks swing-and-miss, presumably leading to some good-natured booing from the cardboard cutouts. But yes, not only is that three more Yankees homers, it's three straight homers on the first pitch of an at-bat. In the treasure trove that is the Baseball Reference pitch-count data back to 1988, we found only three other instances of three consecutive first-pitch homers. And then realized we were at the previous one-- Eric Chavez, Frank Thomas, and Milton Bradley for the A's on April 15, 2006. (Milton Bradley: He got game. That slogan never took off. Sigh.) The others were by Fred McGriff, Rondell White, and Todd Hundley of the Cubs on September 29, 2001; and Dodgers heavy-hitters Mike Piazza, Eric Karros, and Raul Mondesi, who did it at Coors on June 30, 1996.
Hicks struck out. Next. Pitch. We can't. Make. This. Up. Giancarlo Stanton home run. And before you can finish asking for the last time the Yankees hit four homers in an inning (it's June 3, 2017, oddly enough in Toronto), Gleyber Torres has taken five pitches to only slightly delay history. Only seven teams have ever connected for five four-baggers in an inning (this is our other "score" in the intro). The Twins, on June 9, 1966, had been the only American League team ever to do it. The last time any team did it was on July 27, 2017, when the Nationals unloaded on Michael Blazek of the Brewers, and as pointed out by our friends at Rogers Sportsnet, Anderson watched that Blazek implosion from the Brewers bullpen because they were teammates at the time. (That was also Blazek's final game with the Brewers; he got sent down to triple-A a week later and released in the offseason.) Obviously Anderson is the first Jays pitcher to give up 5 homers in an inning, but he's only the fourth to even allow 5 homers in a game. Brett Cecil did it at Fenway on May 20, 2009, and the other two games were both served up by Pat Hentgen in the mid-1990s.
Here we throw in a mention for Lourdes Gurriel, who answered the Yankees' five homers with one of his own to start the next inning. Unfortunately four of his next five teammates did not do the same. But Gurriel also hit two homers in a loss at Yankee Stadium on June 26 of last season. He's the first Jays batter to do that twice at the new place, and the only one to do it across the street (2 HR in a loss twice) was John Mayberry Sr. But with 5 homers already in the books, the question was not if the Yankees will hit a sixth one-- becoming the first team ever to do it in three straight games-- but who. Gary Sanchez in the 7th. It also gave the Yankees 10 runs scored for the third straight game, which they hadn't done against the same opponent since August 2006 at Fenway. And the Jays had only ever allowed it once before, in that same April 2000 series in Seattle where the 17 and the 19 were preceded by an 11-9 loss.
While one New York team was busy hitting back-to-back-to-back home runs off another New York team (yeah, we went there, Buffalo) on Thursday, you might be wondering what happened to that other New York team, you know, the one that just got bought by a billionaire from Connecticut. Well, they were busy paving the way for the Blue Jays to head down to Philadelphia by playing there themselves. And oh yeah, stop us if this sounds familiar, giving up back-to-back-to-back home runs.
Now, this wouldn't be nearly as amusing (or Mets-ian) if the Mets hadn't scored 3 runs of their own in the top of the 1st. But after Andrew McCutchen led off by striking out, boom go Bryce Harper, then Alec Bohm, then Didi Gregorius, and just 17 pitches in, the Phillies have already tied the game at 3-3. None of them is a stranger to 1st-inning homers; Harper has already hit 5 this year, matching the most by any Phillies batter last year in a full 162-game season. Gregorius hit a 1st-inning grand slam last week that got our attention. But it was the first B2B2B in the 1st inning for the Phillies since Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Pat Burrell against the Cardinals on June 13, 2008. And that game was in St Louis, meaning Thursday was the first time it had happened at Citizens Bank Park. The last time the Phils hit three straight in the 1st at the Vet was April 28, 1999, by Scott Rolen, Rico Brogna, and Ron Gant (who added fun to his by making it an inside-the-parker).
After the obligatory and oh-so-helpful "mound visit", Seth Lugo then gives up a triple to the next batter, Jean Segura. That eventually leads to the Phillies going up 4-3, and then 5-3 when Harper comes up again in the 2nd. Lugo thus became the second starter in Mets history to give up 4 homers and not make it out of the 2nd inning; Victor Zambrano did it against Milwaukee on August 2, 2005 (and got a no-decision... wait for it). Only two other Mets pitchers had ever given up 4 homers and a triple in an entire game; they were Bartolo Colón in Anaheim in 2014 and Steve Trachsel in a completely different 2005 game against the Brewers.
The Mets would hang around at 6-3 for a few innings before finding Nimmo. Brandon had a game-tying triple in the 6th to get Lugo off the hook, and then led off the top of the 9th with a solo shot to actually put the Mets ahead. He would join Damion Easley (August 26, 2008) as the only Mets batters with a homer, a triple, and a single in the same game at CBP, and he's just the fourth batter in Mets history with a homer and a triple where one of the hits took the lead and the other tied the game. The others on that list are Scott Hairston (April 27, 2012, at Colorado), Darryl Strawberry (June 26, 1983, vs Philadelphia), and Ed Kranepool (May 2, 1967, vs Giants). With Dom Smith, who had a double and a triple, it was the first time one Mets batter went HR-3B and another went 3B-2B since Edgardo Alfonso and Kurt Abbott on June 7, 2000.
And remember those early homers, the ones that went for naught when the Phillies still ended up losing? Bryce Harper became the second player in Phillies history to homer in both the 1st and 2nd innings of a game they ended up losing; Jimmy Rollins also pulled that trick against the Mets on April 12, 2007. And you may remember from the previous section that the Yankees also hit three straight homers on Thursday. On three pitches even. Only three times in major-league history has that happened twice on the same day. On April 9, 2000, the Royals and Twins both did it-- in the same game!, against each other. Just 7½ months earlier, on August 22, 1999, the Giants and Diamondbacks were the first to pull the trick, both doing so in the 1st inning as well.
We mentioned that the Mets were only paving the way for that adopted New York team, the Blue Jays, to head down to Philadelphia. They might have even passed each other on the Turnpike at some point, because the Mets were headed back home on Friday to meet the Braves. And the more things change in Mets-land, the more they stay the same.
On Friday it was Steven Matz's turn to get knocked around, as the Braves opened a game with four straight hits for the first time this season. The last time they did it on the road was, guess what, at Citi Field, on May 1, 2018, against Noah Syndergaard. (That was also the last time the Mets allowed it at home.) By the time Marcell Ozuna homers in the 2nd (in his second at-bat, mind you), it's already 5-0 and Matz has thrown 51 pitches to get 4 outs. The Mets, probably sticking to The Plan, allowed him to complete the second time through the Braves' order, pausing only to give up another homer to Austin Riley, but 76 pitches and didn't get out of the 3rd. If that seems like a theme lately, it's because Matz has now made four straight starts where he gave up 5+ earned runs and didn't get through the 5th inning, the first pitcher in Mets history to pull that off. Now recall that Seth Lugo didn't make it through the 2nd on Thursday. And even though it was mostly due to a hamstring injury and not "giving up a bunch of runs", Jacob deGrom came out after 2 innings on Wednesday as well. It's the first time that three consecutive Mets starters failed to finish the 3rd inning since Mike Scott, Pete Falcone, and Randy Jones in May 1982.
Rookie Franklyn Kilome got out of the 3rd but was also charged with pitching the 4th. And that only featured three walks and two more homers, this time Travis d'Arnaud and Ozzie Albies to make it 12-0 and start us wondering if this was part two of The 29-9 Game. It wasn't, but it got halfway there when Albies and Ronald Acuña hit back-to-back jacks off Jared Hughes in the 6th. That would be, once again, 6 homers for the Braves in the game, just as they did last week. They'd never had multiple 6-HR games in the same season, and the only other time they'd done it in New York wasn't against the Mets... it was against the Dodgers. On July 31, 1954, at Ebbets Field, Joe Adcock became the seventh player to hit four in a game as the Braves won 15-7 (Eddie Mathews hit the other two). Our three Mets pitchers, by allowing 2 homers each, became the second trio in team history to do that; Sean Gilmartin, Josh Smoker, and yes-he's-actually-a-catcher Kevin Plawecki did it in one of those beatdowns by the Nationals (the 23-5 one in 2017).
Albies, who you may have noticed hit 2 homers, also bats 9th. Since that's been the pitcher's spot for most of Braves history, it's not surprising that only five #9 batters have ever done that for them, and three were pitchers. Mallex Smith in 2016 is the one who wasn't; Derek Lilliquist did it in 1980, and Tony Cloninger did it twice in 1966-- one of those being his famous 2-grand-slams game. By the end of Friday's escapade, Todd Frazier would become the first Mets player ever to start a game as the team's cleanup hitter and end up pitching instead. He also recorded the only 1-2-3 inning of the day to make our final score 15-2. In the first series of the season, the Braves also hung a 14-1 score on the Mets (July 26), marking just the second time in the live-ball era that they'd defeated the same opponent by 13+ twice in the same season. The other squad to get that treatment was the 1966 Giants.
Turns out, however, the Braves aren't immune from losing a game by 13 either. They started the week on the wrong end of a 9-run inning by the Orioles, their first since April 15, 2016 (only four teams have gone longer without one). Two of the Braves' largest losses, and two of the Orioles' largest wins, in interleague play have been against each other; they also spit out a 22-1 score at Turner Field on June 13, 1999. But that 14-1 loss on Monday came just five days after the 20-run win over the Marlins last week. The last time the Braves won by 13+ and lost by 13+ within a week of each other was in August 1936. And then it happened twice in 10 days because, well, baseball.
Can It Be Miller Time Yet?
Much like a hitting coach in Little League, the best advice we can offer the Brewers is, work on your timing. Remember last week when they started Wednesday with a ridiculous 18-0 shutout of the Tigers? Yeah, you forgot about that because just a couple hours later the Braves dropped that 29-9 game. Now, we'll admit that Miller Park was the story on Sunday, but that was in a bad way for Milwaukee because it was the site of Alec Mills' no-hitter. So on Tuesday it was the Brewers' turn to dump an 18-3 score on the Cardinals. And did you notice? Probably not, because that was the same night the Yankees were dumping 11 extra-base hits and a 20-6 score on the Blue Jays.
One thing the Brewers did that the Yankees did not was score 18+ runs twice in a week. No team had done that since the Red Sox beat Toronto (18-6) and Baltimore (18-9) in September 2011. The Brewers have had just four seasons where they've scored 18+ twice at all, and apparently it has something to do with the census, because those years are 1980, 1990, 2010, and now 2020. (We presume that in 1970 and 2000 they were too busy adjusting to their new surroundings, first at County and then while trying to get Miller Park finished.)
Jack Flaherty had already gotten tagged for 4 runs when he came out for the 4th, and then had gotten tagged for 9 runs when he came out of the 4th. Four singles and a walk to start the frame, all of whom would eventually score, made Flaherty the first Cardinals pitcher to give up 9 runs while getting 9 outs since Adam Wainwright in Baltimore on June 17, 2017. However, Flaherty was the first ever to give up 9 earned runs and 2 homers while still striking out at least six batters.
Among the batters who did not strike out, at least not against Flaherty, was the recently-acquired Daniel Vogelbach, who had a homer, a double, 3 runs scored, and 4 RBI out of the cleanup spot. Only Richie Sexson (2003) and John Jaha (1996) had posted that line in Brewers history. Keston Hiura, who greeted Flaherty's replacement Jake Woodford with a 3-run homer, created the second set of Brewers teammates ever to have a homer and 4 RBI in the same game at Miller Park. Devon White and Jeromy Burnitz both did it against the Cubs on May 10, 2001. And as for Vogelbach's homer, well, let's say it wasn't anything really important. It was the last of those 18 runs, and it came in the 7th inning with the score already 17-3. In that 18-0 shutout last week, Jedd Gyorko and Tyrone Taylor provided the last three Brewers runs, both of them homering with the team already up by 14 or more. So they had three such homers in less than a week. In their prior 51 seasons of existence, want to guess how many such homers they had? One-- by Gorman Thomas against the Red Sox on April 12, 1980.
When we patted ourselves on the back for coming up with that "He's The DJ, I'm The Catcher" title, we didn't even know there was actually a song on the album by that name. It's like track number 13. It's of course known for several other much-more-popular offerings. And since we have only one week left in the regular season, and about 36 hours left of astronomical summer, it's only fair to give it one final salute. Intermission!
Fish Tales
While we're talking about wacky score disparities, another honorable mention to the Marlins. And this time it's not for giving up 29 runs. Nope, this one would be because they played a doubleheader with the Nationals on Friday and managed to post A Tale Of Two Games in the same day. Granted, here in our new experimental sport of Baseball 2.0 (or is it 2.020?), these are 7-inning games. So grain of salt when Miami gets shut out on 2 hits in the opener. But that had never happened to them before in a Game 1, and Erick Fedde became the first Nationals pitcher to allow 1 hit and strike out 6 against the Marlins since Jordan Zimmermann's no-hitter in the final game of 2014.
Second verse, same as the-- oh no, no, not at all like the first. This time it took a mere 6 pitches for the Marlins to score a run. Corey Dickerson became the second player in team history to lead off a "game 2" with a home run; Chuck Carr did it in the very first doubleheader the Marlins ever played, June 1, 1993, against the Giants. Brian Anderson then said, I'll take it from here, leading off the 2nd with another homer. Only twice before had the Marlins led off the 1st and 2nd innings of the same game with taters, and you know you wanted a Hee-Seop Choi reference in this post. He and Juan Pierre were the first to do it, on June 23, 2004, followed by Derek Dietrich and Adeiny Hechavarria on April 30, 2016.
Adeiny-- three years earlier-- was also the last Marlins batter to have a 7-RBI game, which is about to become relevant because Anderson couldn't stop himself. He homered in the 5th after reliever James Bourque had walked both Garrett Cooper and Jesús Aguilar to start the inning. (More on them in a moment.) The Marlins ended up batting around and scoring 4 more runs, which means we're at the same spot in the 6th. Cooper got plunked and Aguilar walked again. Stop us if you've heard "Brian Anderson 3-run homer" already. Yep, that's 3 dingers and 7 RBI, and the only other entrant on both Marlins lists is Cody Ross against the Mets on September 11, 2006. Mike Lowell in 2004 had their only other 3-homer game, while Gary Sheffield and Greg Colbrunn (both in 1995), along with Hechavarria, had the other 7-RBI games.
Aaron Barrett, who performed the plunking of Cooper and the walking of Aguilar-- but departed just in time to not give up Anderson's third homer-- was the first pitcher in Nats/Expos history to face 2 batters, hit one and walk the other, and have both of them score. Aguilar had already walked earlier in the game; the only other Marlins designated hitters to draw 3 walks in a game were Gary Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla (both in 1997), and Cliff Floyd (who did it twice). This also creates the strange boxscore line that Aguilar had 0 hits but yet scored 3 runs. And if you think that's weird, scroll up. Thanks to that HBP, Cooper did it too! No team's had two players with that line in the same game since Mark Kotsay and Ryan Klesko did it for the Padres on June 7, 2001.
When Chad Wallach doubles to bring in one more run, we have our final score of 14-3, which is not in fact Dolphins over Team-Formerly-Known-As-Redskins (and has, in fact, never happened). The Marlins were the first team to get shut out in game 1 of a doubleheader and then score 14+ in game 2 since... oh look. The Marlins did it on September 26, 2014, against the Nationals (0-4 and then 15-7). That's also two days before that Jordan Zimmermann no-hitter to end the season. And think what could have been if there had been an 8th or 9th inning. Remember, New Rules. And because the Marlins were winning, they never even batted in the 7th. They are the first team to score 14 runs in a game where they only batted 6 times since the Tigers dropped 11 in the 1st and tarp-slided their way to a rain-shortened 14-1 win on September 20, 1983.
And what goes around comes around. Just when we thought this post was done, the Nats and Marlins finished up that series on Sunday with another of these wacky doubleheaders. First game, a fairly uninteresting 2-1 in which Max Scherzer gave up 0 earned runs but still took the loss. It's the third time he's done that for the Nationals, tying Scott Sanderson (1982-83) for the most such games in franchise history.
But it's now been 11 whole days since the Marlins gave up those 29 runs to Atlanta, and it's already time for a little flashback. Game 2 starter Braxton Garrett wastes no time with a leadoff homer by Trea Turner, the first one the Nationals have ever hit at Marlins Park. Braxton's line finally gets closed at 5 runs and 5 hits when Michael Taylor homers in the 3rd. Rookie Nick Neidert trots to the mound and gives up three more doubles-- and another 5 runs-- before leaving in the 5th. So it is Robert Dugger's turn to pitch the remainder of the game and take one for the team. Happily this is only a 7-inning affair, but he too ends up allowing 5 runs including homers to Asdrubal Cabrera and Victor Robles. It was the first game in Marlins history where three different hurlers allowed 5+ hits and 5+ runs each; the runs did indeed happen in the 29-9 game, but not the "hits" part. Among all those hits (18 total) were 5 Nationals homers and 6 doubles, the first time since moving from Montreal that the franchise had pulled that off. The Expos last did it on August 21, 2002, of course at Coors Field. Even the 5 homers were a first for the franchise against the Marlins, leaving three other NL teams (D'backs, Dodgers, Cardinals) against whom they've never done it.
Meanwhile the Marlins have managed only 2 hits, a single by Jesús Aguilar in the 4th to at least get us off no-hitter watch, then a leadoff double by Starling Marte in the 6th which the Marlins waste. To his credit, it was just the third double the Marlins had ever hit when trailing by 15 runs (Edwin Encarnacion in 2003 and Kevin Orie in 1999), but yyyyyeah. Not only are they not coming back to win this one, they're staring down the barrel of the largest home shutout in Marlins history. Their only worse shutout loss was an 18-0 in Atlanta in the final game of the 1999 season. And after Friday's game, it was the second time in team history they'd been shut out on 2 hits twice in the same series. The other was at Tropicana Field in June 2012.
So remember how on Friday the Marlins scored 0 and then 14 in the doubleheader? On Sunday the Nationals scored 1 and then 15. Slightly different question, same answer-- that September 2014 DH where the Marlins did 0 and then 15. But while the Marlins scored 14 in 6 at-bats on Friday, the Nationals (as the visiting team) bumped that up to 15 in 7 at-bats on Sunday. And that does not also end at that 14-1 Tigers victory in 1983. Keep going. 15 runs in a 7-inning game hadn't been done since the Yankees beat the Red Sox in a rain-shortened contest on July 7, 1954.
If you've been with us for any length of time, you know weird endings are right up there on our "favorites" list. (Right behind balks and catcher's interference. No, we don't have a problem.) So Nick Wittgren of the Indians has to get some love this week, and based on Tuesday's game, he kinda needs it. We'll set this up by saying that Cleveland and the Cubs were locked in a 3-3 tie in the 7th despite Yu Darvish's strange line of having allowed 9 hits including 5 doubles. Because it's tied, he's already destined to be the first Cubs pitcher to do that and not lose since Kevin Tapani against Houston on May 15, 2001. The Cubs get a go-ahead sac fly in the 7th, then an insurance run in the 8th when Javier Baez scores from first on a strikeout. So this is strange enough already.
Naturally Francisco Lindor hits a 2-run dinger, the second tying or go-ahead homer that Cleveland's ever hit in the 9th or later at Wrigley. Luis Valbuena gave them a lead in the top of the 13th back on June 20, 2009. That homer also made Lindor the second Clevelander ever to have a 4-RBI game at the Friendly Confines, joining Carlos Santana on June 16, 2015.
Oliver Perez gives up a walk and a single to put runners at the corners with 1 out. Enter Nick Wittgren. Who must have decided-- incorrectly-- that the best way for the Cubs not to hit him, is if he hits them instead. Willson Contreras-- plunk. Bases loaded. Time to send up the big guns in the form of, uh, Cameron Maybin? Okay. Cleveland even uses up one of those great mound visits to strategize this situation. And of course the first pitch to Maybin-- plunk. To force in the winning run and give the Cubs the first pinch-hit plunk-off in the majors since they themselves hit Greg Garcia of the Cardinals on May 13, 2014. The one before Garcia's was also the only other one the Cubs had received in the modern era, Reed Johnson by Jeff Ridgway of the Braves on June 12, 2008.
As plunk-offs go, we average about one a year; in fact, in the 60 seasons of the Expansion Era (1961) Maybin's was exactly the 60th one. But what about Willson Contreras who set the whole thing up? He's gonna have a nice little welt in the morning too. In going back through all the game-ending hit-by-pitches over the past 75 years (before which we start to lose detailed play-by-play for a lot of games), there were only three other instances where the game-ending HBP was immediately preceded by another HBP. Yoenis Cespedes and Jonny Gomes of Oakland were the last lucky recipients, by Jonathan Broxton of the Royals on April 11, 2012. Turns out they were also the only non-Chicago team to do it; Al Weis and Tommie Agee of the White Sox did it on September 2, 1966, and it even happened once before at Wrigley. Phil Cavaretta and Andy Pafko were the plunk-ees by Phillies great Robin Roberts on July 18, 1948. And remember Nick Wittgren? He's the first pitcher in the majors to face multiple batters in a game and hit every one of them (two, in this case) since Randy Choate of the Cardinals on July 1, 2015... and the first ever to do it for the Indians.
We've finally gotten through that patch of doubleheaders thanks to all the early-season postponements that happened for one reason or another. But there are still a few hanging around, with the Pirates and Reds hooking up for one of them to start the week on Monday. Joey Votto's 4th-inning homer was the only scoring in the 1st game, and after 11 strikeouts, and with another game coming up, well, let's leave Trevor Bauer out there to finish it off. Unfortunately he can't blow a save for himself, but Colin Moran can unravel the previous 6 innings of work by lobbing one over the right-field fence to tie the game. Bauer gave up two more singles and finally came out of the game, although we don't believe he hurled the ball into center field this time. Moran's homer was the first by the Pirates to tie a game at GABP in the 7th or later since Josh Harrison took Drew Storen deep on May 1, 2017. Bauer would become the first Reds pitcher to strike out a dozen batters and not get a win since... oh yeah. Trevor Bauer did that in his first start of the season, on July 26 against Detroit. In the past 20 years only one other Cincinnati hurler has had two such games in a season, Edinson Volquez in 2008.
All is not lost, however, because rather than make the final out and secure his reservation at second base in the bottom of the 8th, Jose Garcia smacks a single to left. And up walks pinch-hitter Tyler Stephenson... who then "off-walks" the Reds with a 2-run dinger. The Reds hadn't had a walkoff homer by a pinch-hitter since the great Laynce Nix beat the Mets on May 3, 2010, and they hadn't had one of the multi-run variety since Javier Valentin defeated the Diamondbacks on May 28, 2006. As for there still being another game to play, Cincinnati hadn't hit a walkoff homer in the first half of a doubleheader since Skeeter Barnes did it against Houston on August 10, 1984.
Now about that second game. Well, Joey Votto went yard again, the first Reds batter to homer in both games since... hmm. Joey Votto against the Marlins on August 24, 2011. Their last player to do it twice? George Foster in the late 1970s. But once again the Reds found themselves trailing after Ke'Bryan Hayes hit a lead-flipping homer in the 5th. Mike Moustakas took care of that with his own lead-flipping homer, the first one the Reds had hit against the Pirates since that same game in 2017. Josh Harrison gave the Pirates the lead in that one before Adam Duvall turned it right back around. But for ultimate pitching-line fun, we turn the ball over to Geoff Hartlieb for the 6th. Hit batter. Walk. Walk. The always-helpful "mound visit". Walk to force in a run.
Nick Castellanos rolls one to short but Erik Gonzalez boots it, Kyle Farmer scores, and the bases are still loaded. That got scored as a fielder's choice assuming Shogo Akiyama out at second, except that no out was recorded thanks to the error. Wild pitch. Five-pitch walk to Joey Votto to load 'em up again. And that will be all for Geoff Hartlieb. Four walks, he hit one, Castellanos hit into the FC+E6, so count 'em up, Hartlieb faced six batters, didn't get an out, but also didn't allow a hit. No pitcher in the majors had pulled that off since Philip "Lefty" Weinert of the Phillies on June 24, 1923. He ended up with the same combo as Hartleib-- 4 walks, an HBP, and a failed FC.
Thanks to those extra runs with no hits behind them, the Reds actually won Game 2 by a 9-4 count... on only 5 base knocks. It was the first time in the modern era that the Reds posted a 9-on-5, and they hadn't had an inverted line score of that magnitude (-4) since beating the Marlins on August 31, 1996, with 22 runs on "only" 18 hits. Monday was the first time the Reds had 5 or fewer hits in both games of a twinbill and won them both since May 16, 1972, in San Francisco. And one more fun nugget about our friend Shogo Akiyama there. While he was safe at second on that failed FC, he had gotten caught stealing earlier in the game. Just as he had in the first game. No Reds player had done that in both halves of a DH since Gary Redus at Atlanta on September 21, 1983. And no player for any team had drawn 2 walks AND gotten CS'd in both games since Dave Chalk of the Angels on April 13, 1975.
However, if it's walks you like, then A, you should seek help, and B, the Reds have another fascinating game for you. On Sunday they managed to defeat the White Sox by a 7-3 count, yet again winning with only 5 hits. This time it was thanks to 11 walks by White Sox pitching. (More on that in a second.) But 7-on-5, combined with 9-on-5 on Monday, marked the first time the Reds had even done that twice in a season since 1910. And only one other team in the modern era had posted a pair of 7-on-5 games in the same week-- the 1985 Angels.
Now about those walks. Dylan Cease could, once again, not cease walking people, although he did at least take a break to hit Freddy Galvis with a pitch. He then started the 4th with three straight walks, taking him up to 80 pitches and only 37 strikes. Oh yeah, and no hits. Heck, why swing? When he finally got pulled after that, he became the fourth pitcher in White Sox history to walk 7 while giving up 0 hits. Joe Cowley was the prior one, and he did it in a no-hitter in 1986. Blue Moon Odom pulled it off in 1976, and Terry Forster did it in relief in 1975.
As for 7 walks and an HBP but no hits, the last two times that happened was also in complete-game no-hitters. You can probably name one-- A.J. Burnett's famous 9-walk NH in 2001. Edwin Jackson also did it in his no-no in 2010. The last pitcher to actually leave a game in progress after doing this was Wayne Simpson-- of the Reds-- on May 5, 1971.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Jack Flaherty & Joe Musgrove, Sunday: First game in (at least) MLB's modern era where both starters struck out 11+ and allowed no more than 3 hits.
⚾ Justin Turner, Thursday: Second designated hitter in Dodgers history to ground into two double plays in same game. Lee Lacy did it in the 1978 World Series, which was an even year and thus all games used the DH under the rules of the time.
⚾ Jacob Nottingham, Friday: Hit Brewers' second-ever go-ahead grand slam against the Royals. The other was by Dave May off Bruce Dal Canton on April 26, 1973.
⚾ Alex Verdugo, Wed-Thu: First Red Sox batter with consecutive 3-hit games in a National League park since Dustin Pedroia in Houston on June 27-28, 2008.
⚾ White Sox, Saturday: Second game in team history where they scored 5+ runs with all of them coming on solo homers. Other was June 11, 2000, against the Cubs... and they lost.
⚾ Rays, Tuesday: First game in team history where five different players stole a base.
⚾ Cubs, Friday: First time a single 1st-inning run held up for a 1-0 victory since Alfonso Soriano hit a leadoff homer against Pittsburgh on May 9, 2007.
⚾ Kyle Gibson, Wednesday: First Rangers pitcher to throw a 4-hit shutout with 9+ strikeouts in a road game since Nolan Ryan's sixth no-hitter, June 11, 1990, in Oakland.
⚾ Yankees, Saturday: Largest shutout win at Fenway Park (8-0) since June 27, 1991, with Wade Taylor on the mound.
⚾ Kole Calhoun, Tue-Thu: Joined Matt Williams (June 1999) as the only Diamondbacks players ever to have an extra-base hit in three straight games in Anaheim.
⚾ Brewers, Monday: First time collecting 4 or fewer hits in both games of a doubleheader since September 2, 1977, at Kansas City.
⚾ Zach Plesac, Friday: First Indians pitcher to strike out 11+ and allow 0 runs in Detroit since Charles Nagy at Tiger Stadium, May 9, 1997.
⚾ Caleb Baragar, Wednesday: First Giants pitcher to face 3+ batters and walk all of them since Jack Taschner against the Dodgers on September 20, 2008.
⚾ Tommy Edman, Monday: First Cardinals hit to break a scoreless tie in extra innings since Matt Holliday walked off against the Rockies on October 2, 2010.
⚾ Braves, Saturday: Second game in modern era where they had 6+ hits and all of them were for extra bases (no singles). Other was August 18, 1998, against the Giants (9 doubles).
⚾ Pirates, Friday: First time held to 4 hits in both games of a doubleheader since July 4, 1963, in Philadelphia.
⚾ Madison Bumgarner, Tuesday: First starter for any team to give up 13 hits and 8 runs and NOT take a loss sicne Livan Hernandez for Twins on May 28, 2008.
⚾ Tony Gonsolin, Sunday: First Dodgers pitcher to allow 3 hits, strike out 10+, and lose, since Rich Hill in The Rich Hill Game in 2017.
⚾ Cardinals, Wed-Thu: First time held to 2 hits in back-to-back games since May 18 (at SD) and 19 (at SF) of 1975.
⚾ Miguel Cabrera, Tuesday: Became second batter in Tigers history to have multiple games with 3 walks and 2 extra-base hits. His other was in 2011; other Detroit batter to do it was Dick McAuliffe in 1970-71.
⚾ Dinelson Lamet, Monday: Became third pitcher in Padres history to strike out 11+ and allow 1 run in back-to-back starts. Others were Fred Norman in 1972 and Clay Kirby in 1971.
⚾ Patrick Corbin, Saturday: First pitcher to give up 14 hits and 7 earned runs, yet also strike out 7 batters, since Ken Howell of the Dodgers on June 16, 1988.
⚾ Brady Singer, Wednesday: Became first pitcher in Royals history to allow 0 runs, no more than 2 hits, and strike out at least 8 in back-to-back starts (regardless of innings).
⚾ Red Sox, Friday: First game where they turned 4 double plays, had their opponent commit 3 errors, and still lost, since September 25, 1995, against Detroit.
⚾ Mariners, Thursday: Second game in San Francisco where they had 7+ hits but all were singles. Other game was their last one at Candlestick, June 10, 1998.
⚾ Michael Chavis, Sunday: Multi-homer game at Fenway Park. Also had 2 homers in the first London game against the Yankees last June. Is therefore the first batter to have a multi-homer game in both England and New England.
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